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A Chinese sex education textbook describing girls who have premarital sex as “cheap” has sparked a backlash on micro-blogging site Weibo.
Premarital sex had a “tremendous negative psychological and physical impact on girls”, said the High School Sex Education book.
First published in 2004, it came to light recently after a teacher posted passages of the textbook on Weibo.
Chinese netizens quickly caught on to it, accusing it of double standards.
The textbook, by 21st Century Publishing Group, also added that “girls do not increase the love they receive from boys by sacrificing their bodies, but rather are seen as ‘degraded’ by their ‘conquerors’.http://ghanapoliticsonline.com
“As a result, sexual relations can cause women to lose love.”
Speaking to state media outlet the Global Times, the publishing group said the wording was not insulting and pointed out that words like “degraded” were printed with quote marks.
But Weibo users have reacted angrily.
“It takes two hands to clap,” said a female user on Weibo, objecting to the singling out of girls.
“This makes me sick. As a man I can’t stand this,” said another user. “Since you want women not to have premarital sex, then please tell all boys to do the same.”
Another said that the solution to the problem would be to “lock your women up, then they wouldn’t be called cheap”.
The publishing house should “name itself the 18th Century Publishing Group,” said another user.
Zhong Guanquan, a teacher in Shenzhen who first posted the passage, told news outlet the Sixth Tone that she was “so angry” when she read the textbook.
“The concepts are backward and all the negative comments are directed toward girls.”
The Education Department of Jiangxi told the Sixth Tone website that the books would be revised.
Two thousand copies of the book have been issued to high school seniors in Jiangxi since 2004, reported the Global Times.
Local co-publisher Jiangxi Higher Education Press said that they stopped issuing the book in 2006.
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